Author Bio – Jon Visser is a partner at AllyMark which also offers its social media management tools through its BizSocially product offering. At AllyMark, we believe that it is only the client’s need that should be considered, not what we think we can sell. We live by the principle of ‘SERVE‘ for our clients…find out for yourself.
7 Website Questions You Should Ask About Your Business Website
As a business owner, daily you must consider a variety of concerns that have a direct correlation to the success of your business. In today’s world, your Internet presence should be a primary issue for you. How you are addressing the following areas are a vital concern:
- What is your social media presence and how are you maintaining it?
- How accurate are your businesses citations on the Internet?
- Does my website really tell my company story?
How Effective Is Your Website?
Here we are going to focus on this last question about your website. The obvious 1st question is “do you have a website?” Surprisingly, over 50% of businesses today do not have a website, so if you answered ‘no’ you aren’t alone. While this is not one of the questions below, if you answered ‘no’ please contact us to see what your options are to address this issue. We will not pressure sell, period.
The 7 Website Questions
Ok, here are 7 website questions that we believe you should be asking about your website:
- Do you tell a story? I don’t care whether you sell straws, race cars or legal advice, your website should tell your company story. You would be surprised how many customers expect to know something about you – even in today’s digital world, this is still important.
- Is your site snappy? Can a visitor know what you do immediately from the 1st presentation of the home page without scrolling or being forced to read an essay? If not then need I say more than “how boring.”
- Does your site identify the need you address? Are you so convinced that your business products/services meet such an obvious need that you fail to immediately point it out? Big mistake.
- Is your site secure? Ok, this question falls into the tech-wonky arena, but in today’s world you aren’t being a good Internet participant and not doing your clients any favors by not ensuring an emphatic ‘Yes’ to this question.
- Have you addressed the minimum SEO concerns? Addressing the basic SEO elements for your website should be within the capabilities of any reputable website firm. If you aren’t sure then you must assume the answer is ‘no’.
- Do you have the basic elements in place to protect your IP? Intellectual property is valuable and you should protect it. I can’t tell you how many times I see existing websites that do not have a ‘Privacy Policy’ and a ‘Terms of Use’ statement. Not good!
- Is your site well-structured and mobile friendly? Can a visitor know where to go to find information easily and better still can they easily get back to that location later? Test your site’s mobile sensibilities here – https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
Ok, so these are basic questions and for sure there are others to ask. If you have any concerns about what to do or how to address any of these areas, then ask your developer. If like many business owners, the developer has up and gone away never to be seen or heard from again, then we are ready to help you.
Parting Thoughts…
Full disclosure of our bias’s ahead of time – I can’t stand it when businesses are secretive about where they stand…
- We are a WordPress shop and believe it is the best, most extensible framework available.
- It is our experience that template websites are not the way to go.
- We think that ‘free’ websites are ridiculous and they are never free.
- We take a comprehensive approach to the Internet.
- Sometimes a simple, one-page website really is enough.
- Finally, we look at Brand and Message as primary and a website (or any other medium for that matter) is simply the container.
I would be happy to explain any of these positions to you…contact me and let’s discuss.
Copyright 2017, AllyMark